1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to a lathe for simultaneously machining the line bearings of a crankshaft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a common type of lathe for simultaneously machining the line bearings of a crankshaft blank by a plurality of cutting blades, each cutting blade is rigidly mounted on a tool support fixed to a cross slide for feeding motion or pivotally mounted on a bed slide for feeding motion. The supporting means for fixing the cutting blades to such tool supports are frequently lacking the desired stability. This affects adversely the cutting capacity where hard metal inserts form the cutting edges of the blades. As a result inaccurate operation and breakage of the cutting blades are of frequent occurrence.
Moreover the common crankshaft lathes are frequently not capable of machining some or all of the line bearings without removing and reinserting the crankshaft blank because this would require excessive cutting power due to the width of the line bearings and due to the use of hard metal tips on the tools. In such cases different sets of line bearings must be cut in successive operations.
Moreover prior crankshaft lathes afford no possibility for performance, on the same crankshaft without removal of the same from the lathe, of successive operations such as cutting oil collars and cutting or rolling clearances or exchanging cutting blades rapidly.